There was a lot of talk about this ship around the time of the Iridium 4 launch, as she went out to sea and returned without any fairing pieces a few days later. Some people assumed that they were doing a dry run while others theorized it was an unsuccessful recovery attempt. The arms were in place before the launch, but no one has reported seeing Mr. Steven rigged with nets or bouncy castle, so its not clear how the fairing will be captured and whether a single ship will be able to catch both fairing halves from a single flight.
“Late last year, SpaceX also obtained approval to erect a 20,000-square-foot storage tent behind a fence on Terminal Island, an industrial island between San Pedro and Long Beach.”
Does anyone know what that’s about? My theory is that Elon’s going to host a weekly rave.
The beginning of a manufacturing facility for BFR, I would assume.
Mr. Steven looks like a mini & capsized version of the Glomar Explorer… (grin)
Faring catcher.
Per Reddit, “Mr. Steven” was the name of the boat already, before Elon leased it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/7lefzy/mr_steven_looks_to_be_getting_into_position_to/
There was a lot of talk about this ship around the time of the Iridium 4 launch, as she went out to sea and returned without any fairing pieces a few days later. Some people assumed that they were doing a dry run while others theorized it was an unsuccessful recovery attempt. The arms were in place before the launch, but no one has reported seeing Mr. Steven rigged with nets or bouncy castle, so its not clear how the fairing will be captured and whether a single ship will be able to catch both fairing halves from a single flight.
More details and speculation (over 1200 posts) can be found on NSF’s Fairing reuse thread: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?board=66.0
“Late last year, SpaceX also obtained approval to erect a 20,000-square-foot storage tent behind a fence on Terminal Island, an industrial island between San Pedro and Long Beach.”
Does anyone know what that’s about? My theory is that Elon’s going to host a weekly rave.
The beginning of a manufacturing facility for BFR, I would assume.
Mr. Steven looks like a mini & capsized version of the Glomar Explorer… (grin)